National Republican Congressional Committee

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is the Republican Party's chief fundraising committee dedicated to electing Republican candidates to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Issue ads
Just prior to the 1998 election, the NRCC planned to "spend $28 million on issue ads in more than 30 states, a blitz dubbed Operation Breakout."

Leadership
The chairman of the NRCC is elected by the House Republican Conference at the beginning of each new Congress. The chairman is supported by their chosen executive committee and 7 ex-officio members made up from the House Republican leadership. The day-to-day operations are run by Executive Director Sally Vastola and staff of professionals.

The NRCC chairman is Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), who defeated both Reps. Phil English (R-PA) and Pete Sessions (R-TX) to win the job. His executive committee includes Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), who previously headed the NRCC, as the executive committee chairman, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) as the finance director, and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) as the deputy finance director.

Cole has filled out the committee by tapping Rep. John Kline to serve as management chairman, Rep. Marsha Blackburn as the communications chairwoman, Rep. Mike Conaway to head the audit process, Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) as the head of recruitment, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) to lead incumbent retention, and Rep. McHenry (R-NC) to oversee independent expenditures.

Jessica Boulanger is communications director.

Committee funding
Funds raised for the 1999-2000 cycle and the 2001-2002 cycle include hard and soft money. The other two cycles occurred after the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act and therefore consist of only hard money.
 * 1999-2000 Election Cycle: Raised $144,610,249
 * 2001-2002 Election Cycle: Raised $210,766,756
 * 2003-2004 Election Cycle: Raised $185,719,489
 * 2005-2006 Election Cycle: Raised $175,647,095

Independent Expenditures
Robo Calls During the 2006 elections the NRCC spent at least $2.1 million on malicious automated telephone calls, also known as "robo-calls", in 53 competitive districts. The calls were placed repeatedly to voters in an effort to annoy. They often falsely implied that they were from the Democratic opponent in the race. While the federal government does not ban prerecorded phone messages, the calls must “at the beginning of the message, state clearly the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call.” In many reported instances, those responsible for the calls did not comply with this rule.

Go to | Congresspedia's round-up of Robo-Calls to view all the reports of robo-calls by state.

Contact Details
320 First Street SE Washington, DC 20003 Telephone: (202) 479-7000 URL: http://www.nrcc.org/

Related SourceWatch articles

 * electioneering communications

External articles

 * Steve Young, "Left-Wing, Huffington Post, Anti-Bush Satirist Invited To Join President's Team: Receives Award From Republican Congress," The Huffington Post, February 21, 2007.